Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Laura broke up with Sean and told him that this was their last meeting, Sean sat alone in their usual spot by the river, broken and heartbroken because she was going to marry another man.

On their wedding night, everyone outside bustled with anticipation, waiting for the bride to make her entrance. Inside her room, Laura's friend helped her adjust her wedding decorations. She was happy and smiling, believing she was finally married to a kind man ready to make her happy. But Sean could not accept it.

As the bride stepped outside accompanied by her mother, who held her hand with a proud smile, Sean suddenly cut through their path. He was angry, breathing hard from the intensity of his run, and gripping his sword tightly.

Laura gasped in surprise. "Sean!"

Sean stared at her, his voice heavy with sorrow. "Laura, I'm sorry, but I won't let you marry another man."

Shocked, Laura asked, "What are you even doing here?"

The noise caught everyone's attention, and the crowd rushed toward them. Sean stepped forward and tried to grab Laura, but her mother stepped squarely in front of him. "Get away from my daughter!"

Sean glared at her. "Step aside. I don't want to hurt you."

Her mother raised her chin defiantly. "Before you lay a hand on my daughter, you'll have to kill me first."

"Mom, stay away! He won't hurt me," Laura pleaded.

Without hesitation, Sean lunged forward and pushed her mother harshly aside. Enraged, Laura shouted, "How could you do that to my mother?!"

As Laura rushed to help her mother up, Sean closed the distance and grabbed her wrist. "We're leaving. Now."

Her father and cousins arrived just then. One of her cousins drew his sword and charged, but Sean swiftly unholstered his own blade to defend himself. Though facing multiple opponents, Sean was a skilled and ferocious fighter. One by one, they fell back, overpowered, leaving Sean standing over them as he pulled Laura toward him. "You're coming with me."

Infuriated, the family patriarch—her father—shouted, "How dare you do this to my daughter? Let her go!"

Sean looked at him with a mix of respect and defiance. "Because you are her father, I don't want to harm you. But if you insist on fighting, I swear I will attack with lethal intent."

"Don't do this to my father!" Laura cried.

"I won't let anyone take you from me, not even your father," Sean replied stubbornly.

Her father lunged forward, but he was an aging man, no match for a seasoned young warrior. Realizing the danger, Sean raised his sword to strike, but Laura threw herself in the path, shoving Sean hard. "You idiot, get out of here!"

Sean sheathed his sword, grabbing her hand again. "We're going now."

"You lunatic, let go of me! I'll hate you forever if you drag me away like this," Laura sobbed.

Sean stared down at her, unyielding. "I don't care. I can survive you hating me, but I can never survive the thought of you lying in another man's arms."

Suddenly, a voice interrupted them. To everyone's shock, her skinny, timid fiancé stood trembling before Sean. "What do you want? Do you want to fight me too?" Sean mocked, his eyes flashing with lethal intent. "You're the only one here I won't show mercy to. I will kill you on sight if you cross me."

Terrified, the fiancé turned and fled, leaving Laura behind to be abducted by the man she had tried so hard to leave.

A wave of bitter despair washed over Laura. The man she had respected, believing him to be wonderful and kind, had turned out to be a coward who abandoned her out of fear. Yet, Sean wasn't about to give them a second chance. Knowing there was no turning back and that letting go meant losing her forever, he grabbed her waist and bolted into the wilderness.

That was the legendary tale of the two neighboring villages.

The incident only deepened the violence and hatred between their clans, even though Sean's family publicly condemned his actions. While the rival families frequently clashed, none had ever dared to kidnap a bride on her wedding night and assault her family. The enmity between the North and South only grew more poisonous.

The story of the disappearance of the sweet, energetic seventeen-year-old Laura and the mysterious, formidable fighter Sean became a dark legend. Among her people, Laura was remembered as a bright, innocent soul. Among his people, Sean was viewed as a quiet, enigmatic warrior of few words. Despite extensive searches, neither family could ever track them down.

Though people occasionally spotted them, Sean always managed to slip away into the shadows with Laura. For a long time, Laura tried to secretly communicate with her cousins, desperate to be found, but Sean always put a stop to it, and they would vanish into thin air once more.

Decades passed. The two hostile villages eventually expanded until they merged into a single sprawling city divided by a river. The North was ruled by Laura's descendants, while the South was governed by Sean's bloodline. Over the generations, the active bloodshed faded, leaving the tale of Laura and Sean as nothing more than an ancient myth whispered around fires.

Ninety years after that fateful night in 1990, the North was governed from a massive, imposing mansion by the twenty-eight-year-old head of the family, David.

One morning, as David opened the mansion's grand front doors, he stopped in sheer astonishment. Standing before him was a young woman with long dark hair, pale white skin, and sleepy blue eyes. She looked to be about nineteen, her steps heavy and exhausted.

David stared at her, stunned. "Are you alright?"

The girl looked up weakly. "I need to see the head of your family."

"Why?" David asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I need his help..."

Before she could finish, her knees buckled. David lunged forward just in time to catch her as she collapsed. "Hey, are you okay?"

Unconscious, she was completely limp. David scooped her up in his arms and shouted for the servants.

Later, inside a luxurious guest room, the girl lay resting on a velvet bed. As morning sunlight filtered through the window, she slowly fluttered her eyes open and turned her head.

Sitting on a chair beside the bed, reading a book, was David. He looked up, noticing she was awake. "Are you feeling better?"

The girl sat up, her expression dead serious. "Yes. Where is the head of the family?"

David closed his book. "I am the head of the family. What do you want from me?"

"I need your protection."

"Why didn't you go to the authorities?" David asked skeptically.

"The police are weak; they can't save me. I had to seek out a powerful family."

"Why come to us specifically?" David pressed. "Why didn't you go to the Southern family?"

The girl answered with fierce conviction, "Because you are my family."

David let out a dry, sarcastic laugh. He knew every member of his extended clan; he could recognize them anywhere. He had never laid eyes on this girl in his life. "Are you joking? I've never seen you before in my life."

"That's impossible," she insisted. "You must have heard stories about me from your parents or grandparents."

"I have no idea who you are."

"I am Laura," she said firmly. "Haven't you ever heard of Laura?"

At the name, David's mind instantly flashed back to the infamous legend—the seventeen-year-old girl kidnapped by a Southern fighter ninety years ago. But that was impossible; she couldn't possibly still be alive.

"Unfortunately, no," David replied gently, assuming she was mentally unstable.

"You do know me," she argued urgently. "You just never expected me to be the girl who was abducted ninety years ago. But it's true. It's really me."

David stared at her in silence for a moment before offering a pitying smile. "You must be delirious. Once you recover, I'll have someone escort you out of the estate."

As David stood up to leave, Laura panicked. She leaped out of bed, rushed over, and grabbed the fabric of his shirt. "Please don't kick me out! I'm in grave danger."

"Listen, you aren't part of our family—"

"It doesn't matter if you believe my name is Laura or not," she interrupted, her voice trembling. "I am one of you. You can verify it! Before my wedding, I gave a special drawing to my uncle as a gift. It features a portrait of me. If you find it, you'll see the exact resemblance. Even if you don't believe I'm her, you'll know I'm a descendant of the original Laura, right?"

David paused, studying her terrified expression. "Fine. Let's assume you're her descendant. What kind of trouble could possibly make you run here?"

Laura gripped his shirt tighter, her knuckles white with fear. "Sean... he won't let me go."

Seeing David's confused expression, she rushed on. "The descendant of Sean from the Southern family... he believes I belong to him. No matter how many times I run away, he tracks me down. He will never stop hunting me."

Sensing the raw, unfiltered terror in her voice and watching her hands shake uncontrollably, David began to realize she wasn't just telling a fairy tale.

Without another word, David stepped out of her room and locked the door behind him. Making his way to his private office, he unlocked a heavy cabinet, retrieved an old iron key, and climbed the stairs to a long-abandoned, dust-filled room at the top of the mansion.

Standing before the door, a childhood memory flashed in his mind:

A young David standing beside an elderly relative.

"David," the woman had said, pointing to the door, "this room holds the family's deepest hidden treasures."

"What's in there?"

"Do you remember the story of Laura, the girl who was kidnapped long ago?"

"Yes, my grandfather told me about her."

"This room holds her belongings, the records of how desperately they searched for her, and everything that happened. Someday, you may need to open it."

Snapping back to the present, David inserted the key into the heavy lock and turned it. The door creaked open, releasing a cloud of ancient dust and cobwebs. He reached inside, flicked a wall switch, but the old lamp remained dead. Pulling a small flashlight from his pocket, he swept the beam across the room until he spotted what he was looking for.

There, hanging on the wall, was a preserved portrait.

It showed a young, radiant Laura smiling happily beside her parents. At the bottom of the frame, inscribed in elegant calligraphy, was a dedication: A wedding gift to my beloved niece, from Uncle Henry.

David stared from the painting in his hands to the terrified girl locked in the guest room downstairs. The resemblance was absolute.